Posted on 10/07/2003 12:45:20 AM PDT by risk
President Putin's Sinister Afghan Anecdote
WASHINGTON - A reporter this weekend asked why nothing exciting comes from these boring U.S.-Russian summits.
"Where do some questions come from?" objected Vladimir Putin. "People expect from us constantly some kind of revolutions." Instead, Putin said, just be happy Russia and America are friends. Then, in the summit's most revealing and least-noted moment, Putin shared an example of why it's good to be friends:
"I have never said this in public [before]," Putin said. "When [the U.S.-led] counterterrorist operation began in Afghanistan, we were approached by people, through several channels, we were approached by people who intended to fight against Americans in Afghanistan. And if by that time [U.S.] President [George W.] Bush and I had not formed an appropriate relationship, as we have, so no one knows what turn the developments in Afghanistan would have taken."
Wow. So, when U.S. forces moved into Afghanistan, Putin says "we" were "approached" by "people" eager to start killing Americans.
Who are these "people"?
Did these would-be American-killers "approach" Putin for his permission, his blessing? Or was their "approach" an invitation to Putin to join them? The account is menacingly vague, so let's brainstorm a bit.
Perhaps old-guard KGB elements saw a chance to do to the Americans in Afghanistan what the CIA did to the Soviets. Perhaps Russian extremists wanted to wage a terror war, and were hoping the Kremlin might wink and look away, the way Riyadh does for some Saudis.
But Putin spoke of being approached via "several channels," and that almost sounds like repeated diplomatic overtures. So perhaps Putin received envoys from, say, the Chinese government, to talk about a covert operation to bog America down in Central Asia and bleed it dry.
Whatever this was, it was not a good thing. Nor is it good that the Russian president would trot out such an ominous anecdote. It almost works as a mafia-style threat: Deal with me - some of my partners are real gorillas, and I can only hold them back so long.
Bush had opened the press conference with the usual pleasantries and a welcome to "my friend, Vladimir Putin." He then offered back-to-back statements that, were they less windy, would make a haiku of disconnect: "For decades, when the leaders of our two countries met, they talked mainly of missiles and warheads, because the only common ground we shared was the desire to avoid catastrophic conflict. In recent years, the United States and Russia have made great progress in building a new relationship."
What - we no longer agree on avoiding catastrophe? Look, if we're such great friends, why do we still have around 30,000 nuclear weapons - including thousands on hair-trigger launch alert? (China, in distant third place, has about 400.)
Under the Nonproliferation Treaty - the one we keep rolling up to whack North Korea and Iran with on the nose - Russia and the United States also have solemn obligations to work toward complete nuclear disarmament. (Pie-in-the-sky? Perhaps, but then so is expecting other nations never to try to produce a single nuke.)
Consider again the threat lurking in Putin's story.
So, what happens if some day, when it matters, Putin's not around anymore and his gorilla-partners take over? As long as we're all pals now, wouldn't this be the moment to junk about 29,000 nukes?
(Dear reader: Please return now to the second paragraph, which begins "Where do some questions come from?", and continue reading.)
Matt Bivens, a former editor of The St. Petersburg Times, writes the Daily Outrage for The Nation magazine. [ www.thenation.com ]
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